With the opening up of the field of endocrinology, many diseases of unknown etiology began to be attributed to endocrine dysfunction. Recklinghausen's disease is a good example of the foregoing endocrine tendency in dermatology. Within the last few years, some dermatologists have gone so far as to claim that every case of Recklinghausen's disease is due to endocrine dysfunction. A desire to throw further light on the etiology of this disease prompted this study.
HISTORICAL
Long before Recklinghausen described the disease bearing his name, Smith, in 1849, described the gross anatomic characteristics, and pointed out that these fibromas arose from nerve tissue. Virchow, in 1863, however, claimed that the fibromas were of connective tissue origin. It remained for Recklinghausen, by finding degenerated nerve fibers in the fibromas, to establish the fact that the fibromas arose from the connective tissue of the cutaneous nerves.
ETIOLOGY
There are two theories concerning the